Hard to say, especially since the game suggests it's down for maintenance.

I loved Quake III Arena back in the day but couldn't get to love Quake Live in quite the same way. The set-up wasn't quite as good as I'd have liked and the price of upgrading seemed a little excessive. Needless to say, I stopped playing.

I subbed when it came out of beta in August 2010 but let it lapse the following year but I re subbed just a couple days ago because I started to play again.
£38 is a bit much for the pro, £20 for premium isn't too bad but I think it should be £20 for pro and around £10-£15 for premium, I bet more people would have subbed if it was that much.

Also they need to do free weekends once per month or so.

My friends list is empty now because all the friends stopped playing and their accounts have been deleted for inactivity.

Maybe we could have some quake live instagib fun times or CTF or whatever people want???

Additionally, as a token of our appreciate for your patience through our recent downtime, we are happy to announce the following:

Subscriptions Extended: The expiration date for all subscriptions have been extended by 3 days, to make up for lost time.

Free Premium Arena Weekend: We are opening up access to all arenas from Friday, May 10th through Sunday, May 12th. Players will be able to play on all arenas at all membership levels, and our Pro subscribers will be able to launch standard matches utilizing the full array of maps.

Accept our Repentance: The new Clan Arena map from id Software, Repent, will be added to this month's Standard Map Rotation and available for everyone to play beginning today.

We are excited to announce that QUAKE LIVE will be transitioning out of a web browser and into a standalone, downloadable game by the end of this year.

Over the past few years, browser support for plugins such as QUAKE LIVE have dropped off significantly, causing problems for plugins to operate in a consistent and working manner. With the recent announcement of Google Chrome's roadmap to turning off plugin support and the upcoming changes in Firefox, it seems that now is the time to make the transition.

Once we go live with this change, you will log in to the site as you normally would. From there you will be presented with a prompt to download the new QUAKE LIVE Launcher. The launcher will automatically keep your game up to date before loading. Once inside, you’ll will be greeted with the website, embedded directly into the game itself. From here, the interface will look and operate similarly to how it does today, but the game will already be running and ready to connect to a match.

This change will allow us to have greater control over the game environment, and more tightly integrate the game with the online components going forward. Some of these benefits will be apparent from day one: getting in and out of games is a smoother experience, and you will be able to view server pings from the match browser before joining the game to better judge connection quality.

To help answer some of your questions, we’ve provided an FAQ below.

FAQ

How can I be involved in testing?
We are taking applications to beta test the standalone client from current subscribers. Please see the thread in the Subscribers Only forum for more information, and to sign up.

When will this update be released?
While we don't have a specific date yet, we expect to release before the end of the year. More specific dates will be given as we get closer to release.

Will I have to re-download the game?
For players who already have QUAKE LIVE installed, the transition will be quick. You will download and install a small launcher, and it will update your existing installation files.

Will this affect the subscription service?
No changes to the subscription model are being made at this time.

What will happen to player profiles and match stats?
Player profiles, match stats, clan rosters, and other commonly accessed pages have all been integrated into the standalone client and can be accessed directly in-game without the need of a web-browser. Only the official forum and external links will open in your default web-browser.

Will I keep my player stats?
Yes, player stats will transition along with the standalone version of the game.

Will it still be possible to play through the website?
No, while many of the website functions will remain, the standalone client will replace browser-based play.

What will happen to the website? (www.quakelive.com)
Certain functions will remain available on the website even after the update is released. Players will be able to manage certain account settings, view profiles, manage clans, and even launch Pro matches from any web browser. NOTE: Managing and chatting with friends, viewing the match browser, and joining games will require the game to be open.

Will third-party standalone clients remain compatible?
No, unsupported third-party standalone clients, such as prism-based portal web-browsers, are still dependent on the old plug-in format and will no longer be compatible.

Will there be Mac/Linux support?
We will be unable to support Mac and Linux clients with this transition. While we have reports from our testers that the game works through emulation or virtualization software, we are unable to support native Mac and Linux versions. If you’re using Mac and Linux and have a paid subscription, you will only be able to access the game using emulation or virtualization software.

They have simplified their subscriptions and now only have the one, which is "pro" and also have reduced the price.
Pro previously cost UK people £38 per year but now costs £28 or £4 per month.
A nice improvement but I still think it should be closer to £20, but maybe thats me being a tight arse.

Also they allow the cg_killbeep command to be used by all player free or otherwise see video below.

Option to port your QL account into Steam
Use all payment methods support by steam

Today we are thrilled to announce that we are bringing Quake Live to Steam. Upon release, players will have the option of porting their Quake Live account to their Steam account, allowing you to play and update the game entirely through the Steam interface. We will also be supporting subscriptions through Steam, in 2 and 12 month increments, which can be paid with any payment method currently supported through Steam.

We still have a lot planned as we develop towards our Steam re-launch. First up for launch sometime this summer is a refresh of some of the site's design elements. Users will be greeted by a new, simplified Welcome page. From here, you'll be able to quickly get into a match through our new Play Now button, which will automatically find and connect to the best public server running out of a few selected gametypes. This makes getting into a game and playing super quick; we've found you can go from clicking on the game, to firing your weapon in under 20 seconds. No queues, no waiting, just fragging.

The match browser has received a few visual changes. We've merged down the two current browser designs into one new view that offers more info at a glance, and makes better use of the available space. We've completely removed the right column to allow more room for the browser, and the chat has moved into a collapsible tray.

Sometime after that we will launch an update that for the first time in Quake Live's history, will bring about some big gameplay changes. We want to ensure that FPS fans who check out the game on Steam have more fun in their first match than the current gameplay systems allow. We're not talking too much about specific changes yet, especially since the changes need to be taken as one whole package in order to be effective, but we will be iterating internally over the next few weeks to see what works.

We're excited about the next few months of Quake Live's future, and can't wait until we start getting everything out into the players' hands.

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